For more than 200 years, Carnot's idealized concept of a heat engine [1]}
has been the cornerstone of equilibrium thermodynamics [2]}.
It provided a standard as well as led to the discovery of the absolute temperature scale, entropy,
and the second law of thermodynamics.
The sequel, beyond equilibrium and quasi-static operation, proved a challenging one.
Statistical mechanics and stochastic fluctuation theories have since, and for over a hundred years,
been advancing our insight into the irreversibility of nonequilibrium thermodynamic transitions.
In this endeavor, a particular promising model of far-from-equilibrium transitions is that of Stochastic Thermodynamics (also, Stochastic Energetics) [3]}, [4]}, [5]}, [6]} that followed
at the heels of fluctuation theories [7]}, [8]}, [9]}, [10]}, [11]}.
